Ep. 219 - Modernizing Industrial Historian for Scalable Manufacturing Data Architecture with Jeroen

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Jul 31, 2025

Jeroen Coussement, Founder and CEO of Factry, shares his expertise in modernizing industrial data architecture. He explains the transformative role of historians in manufacturing, detailing their evolution from simple data archiving to fulfilling key functions in data acquisition and modeling. Jeroen discusses cloud-native solutions and their adaptability across industries, emphasizing the need for a solid data foundation to enable advanced analytics tools. He highlights common digital transformation challenges and the importance of cohesive data strategies for improved decision-making.

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INSIGHT

Core Functions of a Historian

A historian efficiently archives high-volume time series data and models it contextually within complex factory assets.
Historians also democratize data access by enabling operational teams to explore and analyze data themselves.

ANECDOTE

Variations in Historian Usage

Some end users have only one person with historian access, limiting usage.
Mature organizations build teams dedicated to developing and maintaining historian dashboards and assets.

INSIGHT

Evolution of Historians with Digital Integration

Legacy historians were control-centric archives but modern needs require integrating manufacturing data with broader cloud analytics.
Proprietary protocols hinder seamless integration, necessitating open standards and data ops approaches.

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Welcome to Episode 219 of Manufacturing Hub. In this episode, we dive into the evolution of industrial data infrastructure with Jeroen Coussement, Founder and CEO of Factry. Factry is building modern historian and MES software platforms that help manufacturers collect, contextualize, and act on operational data at scale.

We unpack the critical role of historians in modern manufacturing environments. While traditional historians focused on archiving time-series data, today’s requirements go far beyond that. Jeroen outlines how a modern historian must fulfill three foundational roles:
Efficient high-volume time-series data acquisition
Contextual modeling across complex factory assets
Democratized access and self-service tools for operations teams

This episode covers:
The differences between SCADA, MES, and historians
The evolution from legacy platforms like OSIsoft PI to cloud-native historians
Architectures for on-prem, cloud, and hybrid historian deployments
Real-world use cases like wind turbine optimization for shadow flicker mitigation
Common challenges in digital transformation, including network modernization and change management
How manufacturers can scale from data collection to full analytics enablement

Jeroen also shares why point solutions often lead to fragmentation, and how building a robust data foundation opens the door to advanced tools like AI, unified namespace, and better decision-making.

📍 Guest: Jeroen Coussement, Founder and CEO at Factry
🌐 https://www.factry.io

📚 Resources Mentioned:
Factry Historian: https://www.factry.io/products/factry-historian
IT/OT Insider: https://insider.itot.io
Canary Historian: https://www.canarylabs.com/
AVEVA PI System: https://www.aveva.com/en/solutions/pi-system/
GE Proficy Historian: https://www.ge.com/digital/applications/historian
Joltek Consulting: https://www.joltek.com/

⏱️ YouTube Timestamps
00:00 Intro and welcome
02:00 Jeroen’s journey from bioscience engineer to founder of Factry
05:00 What is an industrial historian and why it matters
09:00 The relationship between SCADA, MES, and historians
12:00 Legacy historian vendors and what’s changing
15:00 The shift to cloud-native and open data systems
18:00 When and why manufacturers choose to implement a historian
21:00 Software cost vs implementation cost
23:00 Common historian architectures: on-prem, cloud, hybrid
27:00 Regional differences in adoption across US and Europe
30:00 Use case: Wind turbine shadow flicker mitigation via historian
35:00 Can historians ever feed data back into PLCs?
39:00 Change management and user training are key
42:00 Layering MES and quality tools on top of a historian
46:00 Why point solutions fail and unified platforms win
49:00 Empowering domain experts with self-service analytics
52:00 Predictions for the future of historians
54:00 Career advice for those entering the industrial data space
56:00 Who should reach out to Factry